Diamond Spider Webs
by countertime
Summary: AU Chiaki enlists the help of Miyako and Marron to help him clear his family's name... or to score a date. The path to true love and unfrozen assets never did run smooth.


Chapter 1: **The Brightest Stars are Falling Down**

Inspirational Music: matkearney 

There wasn't a big employment sign outside the building but if you knocked (the right number of times and knew a guy named Takanawa) you'd find work, a dry place to bunk.

It wasn't honest work (knocking in dark alleys tended to assume otherwise. Or at least pulled a gun on you for a quick twenty). But honest took advantage of better days and Zen Takazuchiya had been down on his luck often enough to not care so much about legality.

Besides, there were worse things than unloading a dock for the Demon Knight.

**)Hallelujah**

It's a curious effect, the influence a parent can exert on their child. If she was entirely honest with herself, Miyako knew that her dreams of being a police officer had everything to do with generations of Toudaiji's on the force and little to do with who she really was.

…Well, with little less than a year left at the academy, there wasn't much left to her besides being an officer. She had spent her youth idolizing her father (to her mother's increasing frustration) and was only now realizing that the freedom her father enjoyed as head detective was _years_ away for her.

Miyako _gave_ orders. She _made_ rules. People followed _her_-

"Oi, Toudaiji san, maybe Jack the Ripper was a real demon too! They never caught him either!" Yamato Minazuki called out as she walked by.

The few students passing by laughed openly as Miyako colored deeply, not sparing a glance at anyone as she fumed away.

She could not take _years_ of this.

**)Hallelujah**

Marron threw her head back as she unfurled her arms across the park bench, basking in the springtime warmth. An unused degree in architecture and low paying social work meant a lot of cutting back on utilities. Warmer days meant she could stop worrying about freezing to death and wild dogs chewing on her remains while the Super looked on tearfully and Miyako lamented on her loss.

Or at least, that's what she repeated to herself as the sun tipped higher into the sky and there continued to be no sign of Miyako.

Marron perked as she finally felt someone approach her... and block her light.

"You know," a deeply masculine and decidedly un-Miyako voice started conversationally, "I can see straight down your shirt."

_WHAT?!_ Marron threw her arms across her chest and squinted up at the man, who had framed himself perfectly in the sunlight. His wildly unkempt hair whispered into the blue sky and his white trench coat hung artfully across his lean form. Composed. Charismatic.

Marron hated him already.

"I can't see you in the light, but I can see that you are close enough for me to make you regret it," she glared up at him until he did indeed back away, revealing a surprisingly young and attractive (NONO! _cleancut_) pervert. But this was a progressive city, who was she to judge?

She came back to herself to find him studying her with great amusement, "Baby, if you want to get close you don't have to make excuses."

"_Who's making excuses_!? And don't act so familiar!!" Marron was on her feet, defiant and gathering her things awkwardly into her arms.

He helpfully stepped forward and helped pile things up in her arms as Marron looked on incredulously. _A true gentleman_ her inner voice mocked. She passed him at a wide berth haughtily.

"You know the girls back home aren't nearly this forward." He called to her retreating form.

Marron stopped restraining herself- yes, she had previously been restrained— and shrieked "WHO APPROACHED WHO IN THIS SCENERIO BAKA?!"

"So… you won't be wanting a date then?"

Marron shrieked.

**)Hallelujah**

Yashiro Sazanka was not a woman easily given to her temper. But as she studied the file before her, she felt more inclined to hurl it back at the secretary's head (never mind that Pakkyaromao was the only friend she had in this office and was only doing her a favor) and set fire to her desk as she flung it off the balcony of the office.

Let them call her ice queen after _that_.

"Sazanka, should I inform your father that you'd like to be reassigned?" Pakkyaromao looked up, ready to write as much down.

Yashiro took a deep breath. The youngest lawyer at her father's law firm, it wouldn't look good if she started begging favors now. Yet, glancing back down at the investigative report of Kaika Nagoya, she realized that she didn't have much of a choice.

She didn't want Chiaki preoccupied during their wedding.

**)Hallelujah rips through your veins**

Author Note: I like this rewrite much better, so definitely look out for more chapters! I don't like creating original characters when there are so many obscure ones so be prepared to see some bizarre situations.

Also, Chiaki shouldn't flirt so much


End file.
